A board member of Living Learning Pakenham and Latrobe Regional Hospital has been forced to resign after being outed as the troll behind a highly abusive left-wing Twitter account.
Organisations associated with disgraced former Labor candidate John Anderson have cut ties with the Bunyip farmer following the revelations.
Mr Anderson was an AFL Gippsland commissioner for four years before the organisation accepted his resignation on Wednesday 5 April after it was alerted to a number of comments he had made that “do not represent or reflect the values of a progressive community organisation”.
AFL Gippsland has been a strong advocate for gender equality and mental health support and distanced itself from Mr Anderson’s comments, which were posted via an anonymous Twitter account in 2011.
The tweets included attacks on Liberal politicians’ gender and sexuality, the comparison of a female writer to a “used condom” and sexualised remarks about grammar schoolboys.
An AFL Gippsland statement said the organisation would continue to advocate for awareness and positive change within the community.
“AFL Gippsland is proud of its recent work in the areas of mental health, diversity and tolerance and violence against women and children,” the statement said.
Mr Anderson’s role with AFL Gippsland was just one of the many positions he held within the local and broader Gippsland community.
He stood as an ALP candidate for the 2002, 2006 and 2014 state elections, and was also a director of the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, Victorian Healthcare Association, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and Living Learning Pakenham and a board member of Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) until 5 April.
State Health Minister Jill Hennessy, who appointed Mr Anderson to his role at the Traralgon-based hospital in 2015, said she had called for his resignation as soon as she was made aware of the “offensive and distasteful” Twitter comments.
“Mr Anderson was asked to resign and he agreed to do so,” Ms Hennessy said.
She described the behaviour as “completely unacceptable.”
“These types of highly discriminatory comments don’t meet community expectations and they certainly don’t meet my expectations,” Ms Hennessy said.
Latrobe Regional Hospital and Living Learning Pakenham have been contacted by the Gazette for comment.
More to come.
